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Don't Grant Waiver For Bloomberg Schools Chancellor, Ms. Black

While Ms. Black may be an accomplished businesswoman, New York City Public Schools are not businesses, nor are our children products or commodities.

[Comment: NY State]

Dear Commissioner David M. Steiner,New York State Education Commissioner

It has come to my attention that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is in the process of appointing Magazine Executive Cathie Black to replace JoelKlein, who stepped down as Chancellor of the NYC Department of Education.

I have also learned that Cathie Black (like Joel Klein when he was appointed) does not meet the New York State Education Department's (NYSED's) required minimum of education and experience to become Chancellor. Thus, she will need a waiver from NYSED before theappointment is official.This is is outrageous and unacceptable. I am writing to urge you to refuse a waiver.

While Ms. Black may be an accomplished businesswoman, New York City Public Schools are not businesses, nor are our children products orcommodities. Our children deserve to have a qualified and experienced professional with a successful track record of commitment and competency in developing educated, well rounded, and high achieving students. The importance of these kinds of credentials is evident in the failure of the unqualified Joel Klein with our schools. Eight years of his tenure has left classrooms still overcrowded, a curriulum that has little or nocultural relevance to the student demographic (primarily Black and Latino students), communities fighting over co-located charter schools,unreliable school grades based on unreliable data, no-bid school contracts, our children starved of science, art and music and replacedwith excessive test preparation, questions surrounding the manipulation of testing and test scores, and many other serious issues.

We cannot repeat this gross injustice to our children, parents, unions, and teachers.

The process by which Bloomberg selected Ms. Black was disrespectful; it was not open to public input - yet Bloomberg seeks NYSED, a public state agency, to grant a waiver. Once again, I urge that you do not grant this waiver and thus accept nothing less than the excellence that ourchildren and our city deserve.

Sincerely, Charles Barron

Councilman Barron will also hold a Press Conference regarding this issue on: Thursday November 11th, 12 noon Steps of City Hall, New York City